Eat more raw foods — aim for breakfast, lunch and 50% of dinner to be raw (at least one raw item per meal)

I’ve always had an energy problem (lack of, to be more specific), but I’ve noticed that I have more energy when I increase the amount of raw foods I eat, and I also noticed particularly that I felt more energetic during my sugar-free cleanse, in which I gave up all of the sugars listed above. Lately, I have gone a little off track from this diet, but today, I found Mama in the Kitchen and became motivated again to keep working towards eating more and more raw foods.

I found this post, “How To Transition The Family Into More Raw Vegan Foods,” to be quite helpful. Carissa writes of the challenges of introducing raw vegan foods to her family (especially to her three year old). She asks, “How can you fight a culture that loves and exhaults bad food??? How can you fight the Standard American Diet when it is constantly in your family’s face???”

As a non-mama who is just cooking for myself and my partner (who is as open to raw foods as I am), the challenge really isn’t how to transition my family, but how to transition myself, especially when living in a world which, as Carissa says, is constantly putting the Standard American Diet in my face. Is it possible to be a raw foodist and not become a complete hermit? And what about vegan cupcakes and Daiya cheese pizza?

Right when I was feeling as unmotivated as ever to push for more raw foods, Carissa came to the rescue with Mama in the Kitchen. She recommends starting with drinks and then moving to desserts — which is exactly what I’ve been doing (I can’t get enough of these raw brownies!). Now, I need to start on the appetizers and the (gasp!) main course (one great idea Carissa has is to use 50% cooked noodles and 50% raw veggie “noodles”).

As I learned from my two-week sugar-free cleanse (and almost seven years as a vegan), the more you go without something, the less you desire it (when it comes to food, at least). This is even more true when you’re also spending your time learning more about why you gave that particular food up. In the case of veganism, one viewing of Meet Your Meat was enough reason for me. In the case of raw food, I’ll leave it to Carissa to convince you.

“Raw Vegan Foods are raw, fresh and unprocessed plant-based foods that have not been heated above 112F to preserve the living enzymes of the food that help our bodies digest them. Furthermore, raw vegan foods help create an alkalinity in the system that prevents diseases and degeneration of our cells.”